You can’t put a price on love, but you can certainly put a revenue figure on the mobile dating industry. The never-ending search for true love has helped the top dating apps generate more than $100 million in revenue so far this year, according to Newzoo’s Global App Intelligence. Tinder, the spark that set the industry alight, remains its brightest star. Having revolutionized the dating game with its now ubiquitous swiping mechanics, it’s no big surprise to see it dominate on iOS. On a global stage, however, it is under threat by Badoo, which is currently topping the charts on Android. The rise of alternative dating apps like Pure show that services with niche appeal can break the “one size fits all” approach to dating and find a viable route to market.

Dating Downloads: Tinder Tops iOS, Badoo Wins on Android

Tinder may have been around the dating block a fair few times, having first appeared on the scene in 2012, but it remains a popular choice for those looking for love around the world. Using data from our Global App Intelligence to find and rank the top 10 dating apps across the globe between January and July 2016, it’s clear that Tinder still has its spark. The app dominates the iOS dating scene in terms of downloads, generating more than 11 million installs across the world. That’s almost double the number of installs of its nearest rival, Badoo, and a fraction fewer installs than that of its three nearest iOS competitors combined.

In the larger Android dating market, Tinder doesn’t quite have things its own way. Despite sitting comfortably in second place with more than 20 million installs, London-based Badoo trumped it with more than 27 million installs overall on Android. While Tinder is coming under pressure in the dating game from Badoo, it should also keep a look out for an upstart dating service that is steadily climbing the charts. Happn, which helps you find love with people who you’ve literally crossed paths with during the day, is fifth in the global Android charts and third on iOS. That makes it one to watch in the coming years.

Tinder also has a rival in China that it needs to keep an eye on. Tantan, a Chinese Tinder clone that has the added bonus of censoring phrases like “hook up buddy” in the chat, sits in fourth place on iOS. Though it is currently focused on the Chinese market, where Tinder can’t be used without a VPN due to its Facebook ties, Tantan could become a threat if it moved into the global market.

Taking a Look at Tinder: US on Top, Australia Is Dark Horse

When we take a closer look at where Tinder is downloaded and who is spending, a few things stand out from the data. From a download perspective, the US is the place to go if you’re looking for love on Tinder, especially if you have an iPhone. While US users account for 25% of downloads on Android, they account for 34% of all iOS downloads. To put that into perspective, this puts the US download share 9% ahead of Tinder’s second largest market on Android (Brazil) and 26% ahead of it next largest iOS market (UK). This means American users have a much deeper pool of potential matches to choose from, giving them a greater chance of finding that special someone.

When we look at Tinder’s revenues, we discover that there is another place in the world where romantics should go. While the US is comfortably Tinder’s largest market from in terms of revenues on both operating systems, Australia is its fourth largest Android market and second biggest iOS market. This is despite Tinder not being in the top five downloads on either operating systems in Australia. So while the dating pool might be deeper in the US, Australian users are definitely willing to pay the price for a shot at love.

Pure by Name, Not by Nature

Although Tinder is sitting relatively pretty at the top of the dating game, there’s plenty of room for alternative dating services to find a profitable niche in the market. And there is no dating service more alternative than Pure. The ironically named anonymous dating app, which helps like-minded adults hook up for casual encounters with Snapchat-for-dating mechanics, has managed to cross the dating divide between Russia and the US. Initially releasing in the Russian market, the app was translated into English and released on the App Store in October 2014. From that point onward, the center of Pure’s revenue generation shifted from Russia to the US. As evidenced in the chart below, almost 90% of Pure’s revenues were being generated in Russia at the time of translation. Today, however, more than 60% of revenues are being generated in the US.

Why the app has taken off so much in the US isn’t entirely clear. But the combination of its hook-up-focused pitch, stringent data privacy policies, and self-destructing profile posts makes Pure uniquely considerate to users in the dating space. It also suggests that there is more nuance in the dating space than suggested. Though the mechanics of apps like Pure, Tinder, and Happn might seem simplistic, it’s better to describe them as elegant solutions to different dating approaches across the world. While we might chuckle about how Pure has shown that love can cure the dating Cold War, it also offers a serious insight into how dating services can find routes to revenues that don’t directly compete with Tinder.

Conclusion

Tinder is still top of the dating game, but it’s beginning to be challenged. While Badoo is going head to head with Tinder successfully, Happn and Pure show that carving out a distinct niche can give a service a chance in the competitive dating space. The US is clearly the biggest market in the world for dating, in terms of revenues and downloads, but the presence of high-spending users from Australia and the UK show there are plenty of other countries where people are looking for love and are willing to pay for a helping hand.

NEWZOO’S GLOBAL APP INTELLIGENCE

This data comes from our Global App Intelligence, which allows you to easily monitor the performance of your app and competitors apps to spot opportunities across the globe. The service is based on Newzoo analysis of data coming from our partners Priori Data and TalkingData. Annual subscriptions start at $1,600 a month per region.

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